This book, written by a physicist, a philosopher and a psychologist/lawyer is basically about how to apply the “thinking tools” used by experts in these disciplines to everyday life and decision making. It’s about managing information overwhelm, and learning how to think. The book developed from a UC Berkeley course called “Big Ideas” that taught students the way natural and social scientists go about trying to understand the world.
As the authors state in the introduction:
“We humans, who can figure out rocket science and fly to the moon, can’t always figure out how to navigate uncertainty and conflicting points of view to make a simple reasonable decision when we need to.”
The book covers approaches to understanding reality, probabilistic thinking, scientific method and cognitive biases. It also discusses how we can combine rational thinking with very human emotions, to solve the big problems in our world today.
The book includes explanations of different aspects of scientific thinking in an entertaining way, and includes many case studies and thought experiments which are great prompt for reflection and deeper thinking.
I tried to read this book on my holidays and I have to admit it was a bit hard going for my down time by the pool. However, I did find it really interesting and full of great ideas for approaches to thinking about conflict more carefully. Some thought experiments could be used with clients in coaching sessions to prompt them to think differently about their experiences.
